- March 28, 2024
Loading
The half-penny sales tax renewal will be on the ballot this year. Among the initiatives it would fund are electronic textbooks and student-led online forums.
To Curriculum Director Diane Dyer, Flagler Palm Coast High School is a like a barge.
It is the district’s largest campus, she said, holding her hands in front of her as if keeping the barge afloat. Then she turned it 180 degrees.
“To take that barge and to move it as (Principal Jacob Oliva) has done … to make (technology) an expectation,” she added, “is just incredible. Kids will learn technology, and teachers will use technology.”
Oliva, who heads the district’s new Untethered Technology planning committee, sees computers transforming the traditional learning model — but only through the continued support granted by the 10-year-old, resident-approved, half-penny sales tax, which returns to vote this year.
“With the support of the half-penny, we can really move toward the future,” he said. “Technology is changing the way we do standard business, and we need these tools to make sure our kids are prepared.”
Tools like Edmodo (what Dyer describes as an “educational Facebook”) and Biology Solved (a student-led learning project which offers virtual tutoring through webcams and discussion boards) are just a couple of ways that Flagler schools are going digital.
FCAT tests are also being administered on laptops, and classes have been video-chatting with German students, 28 of which arrived March 26, in Flagler, for an exchange program. About 18 Flagler students will travel to Germany in the future, as well.
Cross-cultural relationship building is also one of Oliva’s Five C’s, goals he outlined at the tech committee’s first workshop — communication, critical thinking, creative problem-solving and collaboration are the other four.
But higher technology doesn’t only mean more dynamic learning, he added, it means cheaper learning, too.
By using free software applications, like Apple’s iBooks Author, teachers will be able to develop their own interactive textbooks, complete with videos, podcasts and tutorials created by other teachers across the country, Oliva said.
“It changes the traditional way (students) read textbooks,” he added. “But before we roll this out with our teachers … we have to update our current software.”
There are also partnerships to be made with major textbook publishers, which would allow downloading of full interactive textbooks at $10 to $15 each — that’s about 10% the cost of some traditional textbooks.
Currently, the district averages about $600,000 per year on textbooks.
In the summer, Oliva hopes to begin iBooks training in order to launch the program next year.
“(Technology) is no longer frill,” Dyer said. “It’s just part of what we do, and that’s why we’re so concerned about the half-penny sales tax. … We’ve used it to put all this technology into the schools.”
Higher skills also mean higher wages in the workplace, Oliva added. “This is definitely a glimpse into the future.”
— Contact Mike Cavaliere at [email protected].